Notes on Rindler wave packets in Minkowski spacetime

Abstract

We consider wave packets of a massless scalar field that have well-localized Rindler energy, and examine how their energy appears to a Minkowski observer to study how the classical gravitational red-shift formula is modified quantum mechanically. We derive, by using the saddle point approximation, an analytic expression for the Minkowski momentum distribution of such Rindler wave packets. We find a universal lower bound on the uncertainty in the Minkowski momentum; the momentum distribution can never become arbitrarily sharp.